Kel - New Knight of Tortall
by chirpybookworm
Summary: What happens after Kel becomes a knight and she joins the King's Own and finds love on her quests
1. Intro and a Visitor

Keladry of Mindelan-Knight of Tortall  
  
Chapter 1  
The early morning breeze wafted in from the cabin windows, as the girl on the warm bed shivered, and opened her eyes. It was an understatement to call her tall, for she stood at what the court ladies of Tortall would call "an un-ladylike height" of 5 foot 11 inches. Her chin-length chestnut hair fought her viciously as she bound it in an elastic band and started to get changed. She smiled as the sparrows that had adopted her chirped their morning greeting, swooping down on her shoulder and pecking her ear softly with their tiny beaks. At the foot of her bed, an ugly little dog awoke, strolling over to lick his master. It was plain to see that the animal had been hurt many times, from the obvious scratches on his snout and his worn down, black and white tail. He was apparently not any worse off from the wear, though, because he bounded with a start as he heard the approaching footsteps outside the cabin door.   
"Kel? 'You there? Oy...Lady Knight!" came a familiar voice from outside.   
  
Chapter 2  
The dog gave a low, throaty growl as he stopped near the doorway. Keladry of Mindelan walked over curiously, saying "Stay there, Jump." There was a short rap on the oak door, and Kel opened it, grinning wide as she recognized her visitor.   
A tall, gangly man walked through the entrance, gazing steadily at Keladry. His long brown hair was brushed back messily from his widow's peak, and the girl remembered a time when she would have loved to settle it with her fingers. It had been quite some time since she had thought of her friend in such a romantic way. There was a hesitant pause, and then a soft exclamation from Kel. "Neal!"   
Nealan of Queenscove, at 6 feet, stood barely 2 inches above the pair of hazel eyes he was looking at.   
"It's been a while, hasn't it, Kel?" he said to her, cocking his head to see if anything had changed about his best friend in the past year. Starting out five years later than the rest of the Pages at the Tortallan Castle, Neal was now 24, and carrying on a life of his own. Suddenly his emerald eyes snapped out of their dreamy haze. He swept up Kel and twirled her around giddily. "Forget all this mushy reunion stuff!" he exclaimed. "Mithros, am I ever glad to see you again!   



	2. Head Over Heels

***Disclaimer~ (i 4got it at the beginning!)~ all characters and setting are those developed by Tamora Pierce, and the plot is mine, with gracious help of Lisa, (phantasm2003)...thank you! This is my first fanfic, so please review or else i can't keep writing! Thanks so much to those people who wrote on how I could improve this story so far, and what they liked about it. For those of you who so NICELY told me that this story stunk, don't even bother reviewing, unless it's constructive. i was definitely not done this story yet...and yes, it has a long way to go! and it might not be completely accurate to the TP books, sorry! I know that I can't make Kel part of the King's Own because she's a knight, but I am anyway, because it's really important to the plot! Keep reading! I'm making changes to all my chapters, so check back***PS~ I allowed my email address to be sent out!  
  
Chapter 2 (a/n - sorry, i made a mistake w/ the chapters!)  
"So then I go 'Please say you'll marry me!' and Yuki throws herself at me and says 'Of course!'" Neal finished breathlessly. He was flushed with excitement, thinking about the Yamani lady he was in love with.  
"And we're getting married in two weeks time! Kel, you won't believe how sweet she is! We're having a dual wedding with Roald and Princess Shinkokami…and Yuki wants YOU to be her bridesmaid!" he finished.  
After an hour of talking endlessly with Neal, or rather, Neal talking endlessly, period, Kel's head was racing with thoughts bursting to come out. She tipped over sideways and fell off the bed. Neal doubled up, reaching over to help her up as she sputtered, "B-But, wait, Neal, you....YOU?! I never...by the Goddess! You're getting married!" Kel exclaimed, recollecting her thoughts. She scolded herself mentally for acting like such a ditz. Why did she care so much about Neal getting married, anyway? She knew that he and Yuki loved each other, and she couldn't think of anyone more suited to Neal other than...other than...herself. STOP IT! Kel told herself, stop thinking like that! You just miss Cleon so much that you're jumping on the first guy you see! She shook her head disgustedly thinking 'I really am fickle, aren't I?'   
She turned to Neal, mustering up all her energy, and said "Well….who's on the guest list?"  
Neal twisted his head to face hers sharply. "Are you okay with this?"  
"Okay? Why wouldn't I be okay with it?" Kel laughed hollowly. Not only were they getting married, but they wanted HER to be Yuki's bridesmaid! Her friend looked at her for a moment, then lifted her chin level with his and made her meet his tense gaze. "If you think that because I'm getting married I'm not going to be here…well, you're wrong. We'd both really like it if you could be Yuki's bridesmaid…just think about it. " Kel nodded as he pushed himself off her bed with a bounce. "Gods, I'm acting like her, too," Neal said, referring to Yuki with a wry smile on his face. "I get more sentimental each day." He patted the shukusen his bride-to-be had given him, and strolled out the cabin door. A second later, his head popped back in, turning to the girl and saying "You know Kel, you should really try falling in love…it does miracles for your heart. The Lioness paid me a visit at the palace a couple of weeks ago, and she said I would've had loads more knight-masters than HER to choose from as a squire, had I been just as good-natured then as I am now." With a small laugh, he was gone.   
Kel slowly walked over to her sparrows on the ledge. She picked up a small baby one, called Ruby, due to the diamond shaped red patch on her back. Stroking her, Kel realized Neal was right. She had noticed something about him the second he walked through the door. The twirl around the room was completely un-Nealish, and he was abnormally happy. What Neal's Knight Master, (Alanna of Trebond and Olau, first lady knight) had said was absolutely correct, too. If he had been just a bit friendlier and a bit less satirical as a page and a squire, he wouldn't have gotten "stuck" (as he liked to put it, amusingly) with the hot-tempered red-head to train him. Kel sighed and flopped back on her bed with Ruby in her hand. The first rays of sunlight were streaming through the cabin window on to her face, and she turned over with a groan. "What am I getting myself INTO?!"  
  



	3. (Boring Chapter!) Matters of the Heart a...

  
Chapter 3  
Kel heard a short rap on the door. "It's me, Raoul. If you want breakfast, you should come down with me now." She opened the door, coming face-to-face with her own previous knight master. Lord Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak greeted her with a warm grin, and started to lead the way down to the open field where the riders of the King's Own ate their meals on trips like these. Kel knew that as a knight, she wasn't supposed to have signed up to ride with the Own. There were no knights in the group except the commander, Lord Raoul, who was a Tortallan hero and known as "the Giant Killer". But when he had taken her under his wing as a squire years ago, she grew to love the men of the Own like brothers, and found out that she honestly enjoyed the kind of life they led. They grew to respect her, and found out that she could fight just as well as the best of them, if not better. Kel wiped her sweaty palms against her uniform of the Own: loose trousers, chain mail shirt, blue tunic with silver trim, and a white burnoose. She was nervous. Not about eating with the men, which she had done many times, but about seeing Dom again. Domitan of Masbolle, Neal's cousin and a sergeant of the Third Company, made Kel's heart flip over. He had been flirting with her a lot the past few weeks, and she was ashamed to say that she flirted back. With Cleon gone, she thought, I'm more fickle than ever. I miss the feel of his arms around me, and…the pleasure I get from his kisses, and…GODDESS, STOP THIS AT ONCE! She yelled at herself. Stop acting like you're some giggling girl who has nothing better to do than worry about boys. She made her face Yamani-smooth as Raoul looked back with a curious cock of his eyebrow. They were nearing the field, and Kel could hear the racket the men of the Own made during social times. She held her head up high and walked into the clearing, not stopping to look at Dom. Going up to the servants and cooks, she grabbed a tray from the line and sat down with her regular meal of fresh fruit and some bread (a/n ~ is that what they ate? I'm not sure…email or write) across from him, still not looking up. Raoul sat down on one side of her. On her other side, Neal was already seated, carrying on an animated conversation with his cousin. Glancing upward quickly, Kel caught Dom's eye, and involuntarily sighed. Around 26 years old, he was broad-shouldered and very handsome. He wore his dark hair cut just below his ears, and he had a long mouth designed just to smile. He flashed her a grin, and mouthed ' Wait for me after breakfast.' His hazel-green eyes twinkling, he went back to his conversation with Neal. Kel quickly turned to Lord Raoul. He was talking to Flyndan Whiteford, Second-in-Command of the Third Company. Captain Flyn swallowed his bread hungrily as he told Raoul, "There's been more and more complaints of those enormous tin monsters that you two have seen since we got past Mindelan." He referred to Kel and his Knight Commander. "They're showing up in the worst places, and there's so damn MANY of them! There was a report of four or five more at Northwatch…I thought we took care of that town." Kel froze suddenly. Northwatch was where Cleon was on station! She hoped with all her might that he hadn't gotten hurt. Remembering Cleon made her remember Dom and his wish that she trust him enough to love him. " Come on, Kel," he had coaxed her days before, "you know Cleon's going to have to marry that rich lady to hold up the Kennan Fief! Accept it, and move on." She also recalled getting the shattering letter from Cleon's parents, simply stating that he had begged them to reconsider, told them that he would do something heroic enough to deserve money from the king, but they had come to the decision that it was better for everyone if he stuck with the arranged marriage. The next day, she had received a small note from her love at Nightwatch.  
  
Kel - I will always love you, no matter what. You'll find others.   
Never forget me ~ Cleon  
  
Her pillow was soaked with tears that night.   
  
Walking around the fields with Dom, Kel felt uncomfortable. There was so much going on with Cleon, and the tin monsters, and their war with Scanra…she just wouldn't have fun with all of it on her mind. She excused herself, and tried to avoid looking at the disappointment in Dom's normally friendly eyes. Strolling back to her room, Kel thought of all that had happened since she got her shield. The metal monsters Flyn was talking about…hearing there were more of them worried her. If she hadn't been forbidden to talk about the Ordeal to anyone, she would've told them all what she'd seen in the Chamber last year. It was said that the Chamber would tell you if you were the Knight that the Realm needed to succeed in wars and battles. While Kel was taking her Ordeal last year, the Chamber had shown her the bruised bodies of dead children in a pile, with a small, mousy man standing over them. Their bones had obviously been cracked, and it was horrifying for Kel to see the poor children helpless. The Chamber had told her nothing about this scene; where it was, what to do about it, who was in charge. It only told her to find this man, and stop him from doing anymore destruction…for the sake of Tortall. And Kel intended to do just that. But over the past year, there hadn't been many sightings of the seven-foot tall monsters, so she got off track. Hearing about them being seen in Northwatch brought back memories of the terrifying metal machines with deep black pits for eyes and metal coated bones outside copper pulleys for arms and legs. Now, entering her room quietly, Kel vowed that if it was the last thing she did, she would make that man pay for those children's lives. Since the first sightings of the monsters, Tortall's relations with Scanra had gotten worse. The Second and Third Companies of the King's Own had been placed near Mindlan on Tortall's Northern border, and the Riders were closer to Galla and the River Drell. Cleon's group was camped at Northwatch, and Kel's blood ran cold thinking of all the gruesome things that were probably happening near him. She pushed that out of her mind, thinking of Neal and Roald's weddings to the two Yamani women that were her very close friends. Bridesmaids? Mithros, I don't even know what they DO! Kel thought, exasperated. It was going to be an enormous wedding, she knew that much. And with the Scanran war and the metal monsters to attend to, she was going to be swamped.   



	4. Shattered Love

  
Chapter 4  
Kel awoke the next morning to go through her normal routine. She fed the birds and Jump, got dressed in her Own uniform, and strolled down to the field to eat. She was happy this morning. She had thought long and hard about everything that needed to be done, and had determined that she would leave the King's Own for a year, and go out as a single knight to search for the meaning behind the Chamber's orders and try to figure out who that man in her vision was. Humming softly to herself, she entered the clearing…and halted. As soon as she walked on the field, the entire Third Company was there, looking at her strangely. Raoul came over and, placing one arm on her elbow, gently led her over to her normal seat, as if he expected her to break apart any second. "What's going on here?" Kel asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. Was this some sort of weird joke they were playing on her? Her eyes swept the field, looking for her friends before sitting down. She saw Dom and Neal standing with Flyn to the left of her. Neal was wiping his bloodshot eyes with a handkerchief, and Dom had his dark, arched eyebrows drawn together, with a miserable frown on his face. Kel would've broken out laughing had there not been such a depressing, sad feeling in the air around her. "What's wrong?" she repeated, pulling her elbow away from Lord Raoul's massive, callused hand. He opened his mouth, then shut it again. Finally he croaked, "Let's go to your room", his voice sounding like an rusted iron gate opening and shutting. Kel shook her head, and walked over to the food line, where the cooks and servants were resuming their work, their faces pale and pinched. "Tell me here, whatever it is", she said, turning to her Knight Commander resignedly. He nodded tiredly and patted a place on the ground next to him. With a wave of his hand, the rest of the Third Company returned to their business, still talking in hushed whispers.   
"Um…Kel…" Raoul started, "Well…"  
"By the Goddess, just say it, will you!" Kel blurted impatiently. He nodded again.  
"Last night, there was another Scanran attack on Northwatch."  
Kel's eyebrows arched in surprise as he continued, "Many single knights were killed. "  
"And…" Kel searched his eyes, a strange sense of foreboding sweeping over her. Her Commander wasn't usually this informally sympathetic when talking of attacks. He usually spoke of battles with a business-like air of duty mixed with empathy. This was different.  
"We heard that the Second Company was taking care of it. Had they informed us of all the casualties already, we would've gone with them. Unfortunately, they didn't, and some were killed by those hulking metal creatures."  
Kel's spine tingled.   
" Kel…Cleon…" he continued, pausing to clear his throat. " No." Kel whispered, dreading the rest of the sentence. Her stomach churned and her head was spinning uncontrollably. It can't be, she thought. Not Cleon.   
" - was one of the knights killed in combat." Kel looked up to find compassion flashing in Raoul's dark eyes. Her heart was beating wildly and irregularly, and her eyes were open wide, like a deer staring into approaching headlights. She almost literally felt the happiness drain out of her as Raoul finished. "Cleon was one of 24 knights killed. I thought you should know that he fought until the very end." Kel tried to stand, resting her shaking hands on the trunk of a nearby tree. Her knees buckled under her, and she felt her Commander's arms catch her swiftly from behind. She tried to hold back the pain as he led her from the clearing, but half way to her room she broke out into tears. He kindly excused her from her duties that day and advised her to get some more rest and come to him when she felt a little better. As the door of the cabin shut, Kel threw herself on her bed. ***Don't worry! More to come! Keep reviewing! ***  



	5. VERY SHORT note from the author

Hey

**Hey! Just so all of you know…if you want to read the rest of this story, starting on Chapter 5, you should go to "Kel- New Knight Part 2; Dom moves Up!" I'm currently working on Chapter 7! Please review…I need to know what you think. Thanks soooo much for all of you who already reviewed…I really needed them when I was having my daily brain-freeze. (just kidding!) ~ Chirpy****J******


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